Termite attractant



May 3, 1966 A E ND 3,249,501

TERMITE ATTRACTANT Filed Jan; 29, 1963 INVENTOR.

ANDERS E. LUND United States Patent M 3,249,501 TERMITE ATTRACTANTAnders E. Lund, Pitcairn, Pa., assignor to Koppers Company, Inc., acorporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 29, 1963, Ser. No. 254,728 2 Claims.(Cl. 167-48) This invention relates to an attractant for termites.

Chemical insecticides are commonly used to control termite infestations.To kill the termite, however, the termite must contact or eat thechemical. Most chemicals are either repellent or neutral in theirattraction to "termites, so it is only by accident that the termitehappens upon the insecticide.

An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an attractant thatwill draw termites to a termiticide provided for their extermination.

It has now been found that the solvent extract of termite bodies is apowerful attractant for termites. The material extracted, after removalof the solvent, is a brownish, sweet-smelling, waxlikematerial.Particularly good solvents for extracting the termite bodies areoxygenated solvents such as acetone, methyl-ethyl ketone, methylisobutyl ketone, methanol, ethanol, propanol, diethyl ether, isopropanolether, dipropanol ether, ethanol-benzene, and the like. The chemicalidentity of the solvent extract of termite bodies is not known. When thematerial was subjected to analysis by conventional infra-red procedures,the principal absorptions and proposed structural assignments were:

Absorption band, microns: Structural assignment 2.9 vw OH.

3.4 vs, 3.50 s Alkyl CH.

5.73 m C O (ester).

5.85 sh C=O (carboxylic acid). 6.28 vw, 6.6 sh, 6.7 sh Phenyl ring.

6.40 vw Carboxylic acid salt. 6.89 m Alkyl CH.

7.28 m CCH 7.93 m, 8.6 m C=O (ester).

8.98 m, 9.10 m Triglycerides.

9.7 w, 11.5 w, 12.4 w Skeletal.

13.8 w a. (CH where n is 4 or more.

The reason for the great attraction of termite-s to the solvent extractof termite bodies is not known. The solvent extract, however, has fargreater attraction for termites than does water, which the termites musthave to live.

With mixtures of the solvent extract and a termiticide, the termites aredrawn to their extermination.

The termiticide for use in this invention may be any of the commonmaterials known to kill termites. Examples of usable compounds lethal totermites are the organic compounds creosote, pentachloro-phenol, sodiumpen-tachlorophenate, copper naphthenate,dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, and the various halogenatedpolycyclic insecticides such as aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, endrin,heptachlor isodrin, lindane; as well as others, such as the phosphorouscompounds malathion and parathion. Examples of inorganic compoundsinclude sodium fluoride and sodium arsenate. The termiticide may also bea biologically active organic compound, such as the bacterium Serratiamarcescens, the mold Aspergillus flavus, and the fungus Lentinuslepideus.

The attractant may be only a small portion of the total composition, theremainder being an appropriate vehicle and the termiticide. Theselection of a particular vehicle depends upon the mode of applicationdesired and this, in turn, determines the physical form desired for. thecomposition. The composition lends itself well to appli- 3,249,501Patented May 3, 1966 cation as a dust, spray and aerosol. Forapplication as a dust, the composition is in dry powdered form with theusual inert powdered vehicle material, such as, clay, talc, lime,pyrophyllite, and the like. For application by spraying, the compositionmust be in liquid form. The vehicle may be water or a suitable inertsolvent to form a true solution or it may be a suspension preferablyemploying an emulsifying agent compatible with both the termiticide andthe attractant.

The amount of termiticide present in the final composition, of course,will depend upon the nature of the termiticide employed. It may rangefrom as little as onetenth percent to as much as 20% or more. The amountof solvent extract of termite bodies employed is not particularlycritical. It has been found that as little as 0.001% by weight of thewaxy termite extract will suffice but more than 5% does not appear tohave any greater beneficial result.

The figure illustrates apparatus for determining the relative attractionof various materials to termites.

The apparatus of the figure is advantageously made of glass. In theembodiment here-in, the apparatus is generally T shaped. The side arms10 span a total length of twenty-four centimeters and have a diameter ofone centimeter. The central opening 12 is for the addition of thetermites. Washed .and sterilized sand was added to the tube to functionas a floor. A small roll of filter paper was inserted in each opening13, 14 at the ends of the arms. Water was added to the filter paper atone end, and the test material was added at the other end. Termites werethen added at the center opening. Periodic observations of the insectswere made. Those termites in the left third of the tube were consideredto be attracted to the material at the left end of the tube; those inthe right third of the tube were considered to be attracted to thematerial at the right end of the tube; and insects in the central thirdof the tube were not counted as being attracted to either material.

The invention will be illustrated further by the following examples.

Example I To a Soxhlet extractor containing an initial charge of 200 cc.of acetone as a solvent, there was added 22.7 grams of live termites (atermite weighs about .0013 gram), and the termites subjected toextraction with the acetone. extract of termite bodies was evaporated todryness. There was produced, as residue (A), 0.30 gram of asweet-smelling (a typical ester smell) material.

The remaining cc. of acetone was flashed off leaving 10 cc. of water andmaterial which was extracted with ether in a liquid-liquid extractor.There remained 0.02 gram of solids in the water phase, and 0.31 gram ofwaxy residue.

A 40 cm. long alumina chromatographic column was used toseparatecornponents of the waxy residue. Development was followed with aUV light. The following order ,of solvents was used: cyclohexane,cyclohexanechloroform (7:3), chloroform, chloroform-ethanol (7:3) andethanol. However, only two cuts uncontaminated by Tygon tubing wereobtained. The first (CN-1 of 0.01 gram) which came down with cyclohexaneplus cyclohexane-chloroform (7:3) was a non-fluorescent ester, While thesecond was strongly fluorescent and could be eluted only with a formicacid-ether (1:1) mixture (CF-'5 of 0.05 gram after separation fromaluminum formate). This material (CF-5) is apparently a long-chain acid.

Example 11 An extraction was made in a Soxhlet extractor from 17.5 gramsof live termites with 200 cc. of'diethyl ether,

A 100 cc. aliquot of the resulting solvent and Q2 and then with acetone.While in the first extraction 22.7 grams of termites yielded 0.63 gramof material, in the second extraction 17.5 grams of termites yielded0.34 gram of waxy material to ether and 0.28 gram of largelywater-soluble material to acetone.

Example III A test of the attractiveness of the extracted materials totermites was made as follows: two crystallizing dishes were used witheach material being tested. Each crystallizing dish contained two halvesof a 9 centimeter filter paper. A small portion of the extract wasplaced on one of the halves of the filter paper, and the other half wasmoistened with water. In the control, one-half of a filter paper wasmoistened while the other half of the filter paper was left dry. Sixtermites were placed in the center of each dish. The position of thetermites was inspected every ten minutes for a two-hour period. Theaverage number of termites per period on each paper is recorded below.

Material Tested Extract Wet Example IV An extract according to theprocedure of Example I was carried out again in a Soxhlet extractorusing diethyl ether as the extracting solvent. The solvent wasevaporated from the extract under an atmosphere of nitrogen and the lureof the extractant for termites compared with the lure of water for thetermites using the apparatus illustrated in the figure and the proceduredescribed above in the discussion of the figure. In this case, thefilter paper at the left end of the tube, and the filter paper at theright end of the tube were both wet with water. A small amount of thetermite extract was also added to the paper at the right end of thetube. Thereafter, eight termites were placed in the tube. The resultsobtained in this test were:

4 Example VI The procedure of Example V was repeated except that therighthand paper was left as just a dry filter paper. The results were asfollows:

Time Water Only Dry Environment 120 min 5 0 Example VII The solventextract of Example IV was neutralized with sodium carbonate. The testprocedure utilized in Example V was repeated except that the neutralfraction of termite extract and water was placed on the right handfilter paper. The results were as follows:

Number of Termites 011 Time Neutral Water Only Fraction Water ExampleVIII Number of Termites on 00 Time Water Only Extract Number of termiteson- +Water Time S fi d 0111 e 1 5 Water Only F iaetion 0 4 Water 0 e 1 60 7 5 min 0 3 10 min 0 3 hi i 3 ml 60 0 4 Example V izo gi n 0 4 Thetest procedure of Example IV was repeated except that in this case thefilter paper at the left end of the tube was wetted with water, and thefilter paper at the right end of the tube was dry but a small amount ofthe Example IX extract was added thereto. The results were as follows:

Time Water Only Extract Only OODOOC @MIQNNQ 2% chlordane, and 0.05%pyrethrins. The results were as follows:

The procedure of Example IX was followed except I that no solventextract of termite bodies was applied to the filter paper. In otherwords, the right-hand filter paper included only insecticide plus water.The results were as follows:

Number of termites on- Condition of Termites Time Water Insecticide+Only Water crwrosmucnee OQHHOlb- Satisfactory.

Experiments IX and X show that an insecticide can be combined with thesolvent extract of termite bodies so that the termites will be lured tocontact the insecticide which, in the absence of the solvent extract oftermite bodies, they did not contact sufficiently to cause mortality.

I Example XI The'precedure using the apparatus of this figure wasrepeated except that the right-hand filter paper included water, a smallamount of sodium arsenate and ether extract of termite bodies. Theresults were as follows:

Number of Living Termites Time Termit Ext.+ Toxicant+ Water Water OnlyAt the end of 21 hours, four of the termites were dead, the other fourtermites were moribund, that is, lying on their sides or backs obviouslydisabled, some barely able to move an antenna or extremity.

6 Example XII The procedure of Example XI was repeated except thatsodium fluoride was substituted for the sodium arsenate.

The results were as follows:

Extract+ Sodium Fluoride+ Water Water Only Time At the end of two days,all termites were dead.

Example XIII The procedure of Example IV was repeated except that aculture of the bacterium Serratia marcescens ATCC 14041 (American TypeCulture) was added to the righthand filter-paper. The results were asfollows:

Number of Living Termites on Time Bacterium +Neutral Fraction +WaterWater Only qqwwxn-n HOHHNNDF 21 hours At the end of two days, one of thetermites had died; at the end of three days, two of the termites haddied; at

the end of six days, three of the termites had died; at the end of sevendays, four of the termites had died; at the end of eight days, five ofthe termites had died; at the end of nine days, six of the termites haddied. It appears that in this case, the termite extract has somewhatlessened the general lethal efiect of the bacterium; however, it wasstill sufficient to kill the termites and would have permitted thetermites to return to their nest and spread the bacterium throughout thetermite colony.

Example XIV The apparatus of the figure was used in accordance with thestandard procedure to test the attractancy of a portion of mycelia ofthe known termite attractant Lenzites trabea with respect to termites.The filter paper at the left end of the tube was wetted with water. Thefilter paper at the right end of the tube included a portion of themycelia of Lenzites trabea andvwater. The results were as follows:

Number of Living Termites on Time Water Only Lenzites trabea-l-Water 3 33 3 2 4 1 4 min 3 3 In each of the foregoing tests, eight termites werecarefully placed in the center of the test apparatus. These termiteswere eastern subterranean termites Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar).Similar results were obtained with other termites, for example, R.virginicus (Banks).

The foregoing has provided a novel attractant for termites. Inaccordance with this invention, the attractant in combination with achemical or biological barrier can provide assurance that the termiteswill be drawn to the barrier and thereby be destroyed.

I claim:

1. An attractant for termites comprising as its essential activeingredient the oxygenated hydrocarbon organic solvent extract of termitebodies.

2. The composition of claim 1 and a termiticide com patible with saidextract.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,070,495 12/1962.Esenther et al. l6748 OTHER REFERENCES Barnes et al.: Jour. Econ. Ent.,vol. 47, No. 1, February Mallis: Handbook of Pest Control, 3rd edition,1960,

10 pp. 227-235, published by MacNair-Dorland Co., New

LEWIS GOTTS, D. D. MOYER, GEORGE A. MENTIS,

. Assistant Examiners.

1. AN ATTRACTANT FOR TERMITES COMPRISING AS ITS ESSENTIAL ACTIVEINGREDIENT THE OXYGENATED HYDROCARBON ORGANIC SOLVENT EXTRACT OF TERMITEBODIES.